ROUND -1

[utopiamods]

This morning, the marks of ownership disappear from the bodies of every Weapon who was owned during the previous round. The woman from the introductory video appears on the Exaclan video screens across campus, and on all of the computer screens as well.

She doesn't look very happy.

"My, you weren't very enthusiastic this time, were you?" she says, frowning and waving one finger in disappointment. "That's no good. If you don't fight, you can't earn Tokens to buy your powers or your memories back! If you don't even have those, imagine how hard it'll be to earn Legend Fragments!"

She smiles; the shift from her previous expression is sudden and startling. "You know, if you hear the legend, you just might learn a few things!

"We didn't want to do this, but it looks like we're going to have to. Okay! From now on, Players, you can only go three days without fighting. After that, we'll start taking away one Token a day. And you want your Tokens, don't you?" She smiles even more widely, as though she has no idea why anyone might be upset at being forced into such a situation. "To get you all started, we've given you some free tokens! You already had three each, you know, and we've added seven more. That means you all have ten tokens, so visit a booth and get spending."

She pauses, and then snaps her fingers, "Ah, but only Players can do that, so if any of your Weapons want to buy something, you should do it for them, okay?

"I know you can do it! Believe in yourselves and each other, and you'll achieve utopia!

"Now, here are the Players for this round!"

The screen goes blank, and the following appears:

PLAYERS FOR ROUND -1:
Fletcher Tringham
Kevin Smith
Mei Chang
Meryl Silverburgh
Oichi
Suzaku Kururugi
Tsuki Aoi

Comments

[greennotgold]

Fletcher stared in horror at the screen. "Huh? But--but I don't want to fight!"

[allurprincess]

The first name on the list. Wasn't that... Oh no. Sora took a few seconds to spot him in the small crowd of students, and was then over to him in a flash. The one boy she'd met thus far who didn't want to take part in the game.

"Fletcher!"

[greennotgold]

"S-Sora?" He looked up at her, his face the very picture of worry. "Does--does this mean I have to hurt people? And own Weapons? I don't want to!"

[allurprincess]

She knelt by him, her head already shaking a denial. "No one can make you fight if you don't want to, okay? Ah! But..." She realised, belatedly, that this was exactly the situation they needed. He wasn't Karin, but she believed in him anyway, "There was a plan we had, before. Fletcher, do you think you could find the Weapons who don't want to fight either, and make vows with them? To keep them safe?"

[thatguywhohasablog]

"Shit, already? Time flies when you're having fun I guess."

Dave looked around the lobby, apparently unfazed, and then stuck his hand in the air and raised his voice. "Yo, anyone want a piece of this? I have this massive time sword or something, it's pretty much objectively the most badass. Anyone wants to go ahead and yank that out of my chest like the once and future ninja king of all virtual reality high school fights, they are fucking welcome to it if it means I'm allowed to eat dessert and use the bathroom."

[snakesonaprincess]

A Player. This was unexpected. Even though she knew this was always a possibility, it's still rather surprising to actually come face to face with it.

Of course, no one could probably tell that just from looking at her, as her expression remained impassive as she views the screen. She would fight if she had to, she had no qualms with that at all. Especially now that a time limit had been imposed.

"So now we're being coerced, are we? Idiotic."

[greennotgold]

"Ah--!" His eyes grew a little wider at the suggestion. If he managed to make vows with at least five of them, he wouldn't have to fight. He'd have won the round, according to the manual.

"Okay! Th-thank you!" He nodded. And then, after a moment's contemplation (since he couldn't comprehend why anyone would want to go along with this): "Um... do you want me to make a vow with you?"

[allurprincess]

Again, Sora shook her head. She was touched, but... "Tsuki's here," she said, simply, "She's a Player, and she might need my help. Even if she doesn't, I'm not someone who can choose not to fight."

Her smile was encouraging, nothing she'd said was meant badly, "If I talk to anyone who doesn't want to fight, I'll bring them to you."

[greennotgold]

That was too bad. He didn't want to see anyone fighting... But if she made that choice, it was up to her. He nodded slowly. "O-okay. Thank you! And, um, good luck."

This was a good plan. This could work. The only thing he was worried about was that he would "win" the round after vowing with five Weapons; he probably wouldn't be allowed to take on any more after that. But, well, he'd have to get to five first, and hopefully within three days.

[trollofthree]

"Minus one? Wonder what's gonna happen after this one." Esconced against one side of the lobby, with a good view of one of the larger wall screens, Gino didn't look particularly concerned about the warning. Or any part of the announcement, despite being one of the scolded parties. As far as he could see, he'd had his turn, and it would probably take a while before he got tapped as a Player again. Plenty of time before he'd have to worry about losing the tokens he'd earned. Mostly he was curious as to whether anyone would try to recruit him before he went looking on his own.

Other than that, he just kept an eye out for Kevin. He'd made a promise, and had earned the tokens to keep it.

[forthward]

So it wasn't just her brother and Kallen... "S-Suzaku-san is here too?"

[swordofzero]

Suzaku blinked at the screan. He was a player? It had been a week already since they had been kidnapped and brought to this place and Suzaku was still trying to get his head around what had happened. From the video that they had just been shown those that had brought them here were not pleased that they were not playing along and battling each other.

Suzaku did not know why them fighting eachother would benifit those who had brought them here, it was one of the things that they would need to work out if they were to beat this system. From what Sora Himoto had said in her old school the reason had been merely that those running the school had hated girls, why Suzaku had no idea but those in charge rarely needed any logical reason to oppress groups of people.

But what was the reasoning here? The players changed each round so it wasn't like whoever had brought them here had decided they hated some of them. Maybe they were watching, evaluating them for something. Suzaku shook his head, he had no idea, he wondered if Lelouch had worked it out yet.

So he was a player and there were new rules, he had to fight at least every three days or loose tokens, he also had some tokens - which he hadn't realised before. He heard a voice near him speaking and blinked, "They seem quite desperate to make us fight..." He said in a half answer, talking to as many people as possible was one way to get information which could help them figure out what was going on. Sora had been right, they had to work together.

[myownfuture]

"It looks like it's counting down to something..." Reiko mused, glancing over at the boy who'd wondered.

More girls this time... including Sora's friend. Could the people running this Exaclan really be Iwahijiri? Tied to a chair and covered in snakes one week, and a Player the next. How did that make any sense?

[snakesonaprincess]

Tsuki glanced to her side at the young man who'd spoken. At the last, she could agree that sharing information was to the benefit of all involved. Unless, of course, some of the people here were actually working against their efforts. Perhaps she was being too suspicious, but it was always best to be a bit cautious, wasn't it? As she gazed at the young man, she took a moment to study his body language. He seemed straightforward enough, but there was never any telling.

Still, being too suspicious of everyone she met would get her nowhere.

"They must have something to gain from it, though what I have no idea. It's ridiculous that they would parade these tokens before us, and then make it sound like they're making these new rules for our benefit," she sighed, shaking her head. "Regardless, we don't seem to have much choice, do we? We have to play their little game for now."

[veepofchess]

So, then it was Suzaku's turn. This made things easier. He searched around to try to find him, so that he may tell him to take him as his Weapon. But first, he found Nunnally. "Yes, he is," he replied as he approached. He'd arrived just in time to hear her. He smiled kindly to her, as ever. "He'll be happy to see you. Once he turns up, anyway."

[trollofthree]

He returned her look, and shrugged. For all he knew, it could just be another attempt to speed them up. "Looks like we've got a week to prepare."

[myownfuture]

"Yeah..." That last round had seemed way shorter than a week not to get all meta or anything. She wasn't happy about it, either way. They were being jerked around by some unseen force for some unknowable reason. At least Iwahijiri had made their reasons clear.

"I guess we have to play along for now, though."

[swordofzero]

Suzaku looked around the room for Lelouch, or Euphemia or even Gino as even though there actually wern't that many people in this school it was still extremely easy to loose people. Still trying to think about too many things at once he almost didn't spot Lelouch at all.

Turning back to where he had just been he hurried over but before he could say anything his eyebrows rose at who was sat with Lelouch. "Nunnally!" He was surprised to see her but also wary, the last he had seen of her had been when she had contacted them after Pendragon had been destroyed. She had announced to be their enemy...

Her eyes were open! When... what? He looked to Lelouch and back to Nunnally. "You can see!"

[imperceptible]

... say what? Now they had to fight?

"What kind of screwed up school is this?" The blond muttered, mostly to himself as he watched the next list of names come up and- well go figure. He was up to fight already. Not a bad thing in hindsight, really. He was getting pretty tired of being tossed around like a trading card and his current list of players hadn't left him too eager to go back to being a weapon anytime soon.

Still, the fact that he was now the fighter was troubling. He still hadn't gotten through most of the manual and using weapons he'd never handled before was going to be difficult.

Oh well, better make the most of it. He thought and began scanning the area for prospective partners. As if to mark himself as a player this round, he pulled out his glove, ever present on him... somewhere, and pulled it on, frowning minutely at the strange feel of it.

Yeah, he couldn't wait until he got out of this place...

[swordofzero]

She was right about that, they did not have much choice at all. The girl was saying what Suzaku had already decided, they had to play along until they knew what was going on and how they could beat whoever was making them play.

"No, its very strange, but you are right the only way to work out what is going on is to play along until we learn more information."

"I am Suzaku by the way," he looked back to the screan, there! That was his family name, he looked back to the girl "... erm, oh," he looked back to the screan and read off there, "Kururugi Suzaku," he said as if it was a unfarmilliar word. Still he finally knew his family name.

Unfortunatly the minute he looked away from the screan he had forgotten what he had just said.

[trollofthree]

"Congratulations!" For such a tall guy, Gino sure could sneak up on someone. He didn't really expect Kevin would want him to stick around, so he just held out his hand and the silvery charm he'd gotten the day before. Whilst he'd been tempted to just wait until the guy called him on it, keeping his bargain would be better in the long run. Thus, "Here, as promised."

[bitofafiction]

Some time later, it just so happens that Sherlock wanders past. Certainly not after eavesdropping on previous conversations, or anything.*

"Good morning," he says politely.

*lies!

[greennotgold]

"Um-- h-hi," Fletcher says, shrinking back a little and looking all nervous. He still doesn't know how to handle himself around strangers, and he's especially nervous after finding out he has to be a Player this round. He doesn't make eye contact with the older boy at all.

[forthward]

"Big brother...!" Nunnally couldn't help but smile at the sight of Lelouch. Not only was it still somewhat strange to see him again, but that couldn't battle the feeling of relief that he was still there, that it wasn't a dream.

And then, there he was, like Lelouch had said. It was so surprising, everything here so far. "Suzaku-san too!" Ah... that's right. He didn't know about her eyes. Or she thought so, she wasn't sure. It was just all very confusing, how everyone seemed to have different memories. Maybe that was this place's fault as well. She smiled. "Yes... I can."

[snakesonaprincess]

Suzaku. She glanced back at the screen, double checking. So he was a Player this time around. She smiled a bit wistfully at that, wondering if perhaps they would have to battle one another at some point. But for now she pushed that thought away. Even if they were to fight eventually, there was no harm in getting to know him a bit better. On the contrary, that could perhaps prove useful.

"A pleasure to meet you, Mister Kururugi," she replied. "My name is Tsuki Aoi. It seems we're both Players this week," she said, pointing to her name on the screen as well.

She did note his strange reaction to his own name though. Had he needed to use the screen to actually confirm it? That seemed rather ridiculous, unless he was perhaps pretending to be someone else. But why would he do that? No, the more likely cause was different. "...are you having memory trouble with your own name?"

She asked the question almost morbidly fascinated; could this place really do something that strange?